


Rhyme's Confession

by Lots_of_Little_Pink_Clouds



Series: Birds of a Feather [7]
Category: Vampire: The Masquerade
Genre: Childe & Sire Interactions, Childe/Sire Bond(s), Gen, Gerard Pelletier was a shitty person who hurt a lot of people, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 10:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30003408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lots_of_Little_Pink_Clouds/pseuds/Lots_of_Little_Pink_Clouds
Summary: August 18th 2005Rhyme's ConfessionAuthor(s): LupoParticipant(s): Gerard Pelletier, Lupo, Rhyme (Hummingbird, Lark, Wren)Date of Recording: March 22nd 2003Archived Date: August 18th 2005 (by Alexander Krol)Description (by Alexander Krol):A cassette tape found in a Sabbat haven on April 3rd 2005 by Prince Lettow Kaminsky of Tucson, Arizona, his Seneschal Dove, and Gerard Pelletier's childe, Beauregard Sawyer. Given to Prince L. Kaminsky by B. Sawyer for the purpose of completing our records on G. Pelletier and Lupo, his successor. It depicts a conversation between three childer of G. Pelletier (Hummingbird, Lark, Wren), overheard by another (Rhyme), and recounted to their sire.**An archived cassette tape that records Gerard Pelletier's interrogation of his childe, Rhyme.
Series: Birds of a Feather [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2092887
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Rhyme's Confession

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: _LOTS_ OF MALKAVIAN SYMBOLISM. THINGS MIGHT NOT MAKE MUCH SENSE, BUT THAT'S INTENTIONAL.

**[RECORDING BEGINS]**

_GERARD PELLETIER_ : Lupo! Are you recording?

 _LUPO_ : Yes father.

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : Good. Now, my little Rhyme. Open your eyes, dear one.

 _RHYME_ : Please father... No more... Please...

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : Have you learned your lesson?

 _RHYME_ : Yes father! I'm sorry father, I didn't mean to!

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : That's a good boy. You should have told me what I wanted to know right away, otherwise none of this would have happened. Now, tell me your story. Can you do that for me?

 _RHYME_ : I-I...

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : What have I told you about stuttering?

 _RHYME_ : I-I'm sorry father...

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : Good. Now, go on. Sing your pretty song. And leave nothing out.

**_[RHYME BEGINS HIS RECOUNTING]_ **

_HUMMINGBIRD_ : Not long now.

 _WREN_ : Still too soon.

 _LARK_ : If not now, then when?

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : What is a when if not a time?

 _WREN_ : Shh...

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : A sinner will speak!

 _LARK_ : Speak then. But do it backwards and in loops.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Always so secretive.

 _WREN_ : Quiet! You hum too loud!

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Not loud enough. The rook's left the roost, it'll be fine.

 _WREN_ : Yet the wolf's feathers are always ruffled. What if he overhears?

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Don't concern yourself with the wolf. He's but a cub with pulled teeth.

 _WREN_ : A cub still has claws and a song can repeat.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : An eagle will snuff them out and the upside-down tower will turn right side up. I'm not worried about a song.

 _LARK_ : Nor do you need to. Winter winds whittle wings.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : That's the way of things.

 _WREN_ : Enough. Don't talk about the end. Focus on the beginning. What do you want, morning bird?

 _LARK_ : I dreamt last night.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Don't tell the rook.

 _LARK_ : He's a piece in the puzzle.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Not an important one. The rook only moves in straight lines. He _does_ , but he doesn't understand.

 _LARK_ : I won't tell the rook.

 _WREN_ : What's your dream?

 _LARK_ : Starry skies and roiling sand dunes. A princess wearing a crown of turquoise roses. An all consuming darkness. It hungers.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : We all hunger.

 _LARK_ : Yes. But what does it mean?

 _WREN_ : From dust she was and unto dust she shall return. Friendship will shrivel and leave nothing but sorrow. The tower of angels will burn, the rook will be left to rot, and a blue jay will emerge from the rubble. The path has already been set. All that's left is to walk upon it.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Has it though? Nothing is set in stone. I think the blue jay will greet the sun.

 _WREN_ : Perhaps. Towers with clear windows are hazardous for birds. But so are the sons and daughters of Troile. Better a flock and a nest than blue bloods and rabble.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Better blue bloods and rabble than the pits of depravity.

 _WREN_ : The rook will skin you when he gets back.

 _LARK_ : Peace, Druid. I have more dreams for you.

 _WREN_ : You dream too often, morning bird.

 _LARK_ : Fuck you. You should've been named for being a killjoy instead of for vibrancy.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Easy, easy. Let's hear your dream, daybreaker. You always have the best ones.

 _LARK_ : Fine. Fire and screams and burnt feathers. A fletcher fletches her arrows, the hunters are drawn south, and a blue jay mourns what he's lost.

 _WREN_ : Fire? Why is it always fire? The blue jay best stay away, else he'll lose more than just his feather. But hunters? Truly? When the time comes, we'll go east. As for the listener, she will not live to see her next sunrise. He should've been more careful.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Not his fault. The seekers of truth have their tools.

 _WREN_ : Even so, turtles do not a good excuse make. Is that all?

 _LARK_ : One more.

 _WREN_ : Oh _joy_.

 _LARK_ : A lark returns to the roost. An eagle passes his crown to a dove. A blue jay mingles with blackbirds and falcons.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Blackbirds and falcons? Blackbirds and falcons follow the sunrise and flock with beasts. They're sinners.

 _WREN_ : _We_ are sinners. Or we will be.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : _You_ will be. _I_ will be free.

 _LARK_ : I don't want to be a sinner.

 _WREN_ : The choice has already been made. For you and me both.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : It's not your fault, daybreaker.

 _WREN_ : Is it not? "If it is in any way possible to measure the gravity of human sinfulness, then we should see Eve's sin as more to be condemned than Adam's."1

 _LARK_ : If that is so, then I shall play the Isotta to your Ludovico. "For where there is less intellect and less constancy, there is less sin; and Eve lacked sense and constancy and therefore sinned less... Adam must also be judged more guilty than Eve, second, because of his greater contempt for God's command... Moreover, the woman did not eat from the forbidden tree because she believed she would become like God, but rather because she was weak and inclined to pleasure."2

 _WREN_ : Hear and listen then, Isotta. "... Ignorance - especially of those things that we are obligated to know - does not excuse us... Acts due to inconstancy, moreover, are even more blameworthy than those due to ignorance."3

 _LARK_ : And yet, "just as it is better to treat others well than to be well treated, so it is worse to persuade another to evil than to be persuaded to evil."4 Those are your words Ludovico, but the stories are different.

 _WREN_ : So it is. But who is to be blamed more, the wasp that persuades the lark to sin or the lark that commits the sin? I would say the lark.

 _LARK_ : And I, the tapeworm.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Your debates are ridiculous and convoluted.

 _WREN_ : _You're_ ridiculous and convoluted.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : I'm offended!

 _WREN_ : You see that, morning bird? The buzzard is offended.

 _LARK_ : Be nice to your brother, Druid.

 _HUMMINGBIRD_ : Yeah, _killjoy_ , be nice to me!

 _WREN_ : I hate both of you.

_**[RHYME FINISHES HIS RECOUNTING]** _

_GERARD PELLETIER_ : Most intriguing. Lark was the instigator? I'm not surprised. Your sister has always been willful. But to think Humming Wren would betray me too... Tell me, sweet Rhyme, where was dear Aquila during all this?

 _RHYME_ : S-Scouting father, just like you told her to.

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : And yet, she also fled. Hmm... Perhaps the other eagle scared her off? I suppose it doesn't matter. You have done well, Rhyme.

 _RHYME_ : T-Thank you father, thank you...

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : But! Do not think that your punishment is over. You will go out into the city and survive on your own for three weeks. If any of your siblings help you, they will be subject to the same.

 _RHYME_ : B-But father! The Camarilla-!

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : You dare speak back to me? Have I not done everything for you? Sacrificed everything so that you might live?

 _RHYME_ : I-I'm sorry father! I'm sorry!

 _GERARD PELLETIER_ : Clearly, you haven't learned from your mistakes! I'll teach you, one last time!

**_[RHYME'S SCREAMS TAKE UP THE LAST FOUR MINUTES OF THE RECORDING]_ **

**[END RECORDING]**

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Nogarola, Isotta, trans. Margaret L. King and Diana M. Robin, _Dialogue on the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve: Verona 1451_ in _Complete Writings: Letterbook, Dialogue on Adam and Eve, Orations,_ University of Chicago Press, 2004, pg. 146. Back  
> 2\. Nogarola, _Dialogue on the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve: Verona 1451_ , pg. 146. Back  
> 3\. Nogarola, _Dialogue on the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve: Verona 1451_ , pg. 148. Back  
> 4\. Nogarola, _Dialogue on the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve: Verona 1451_ , pg. 150. Back
> 
> Hummingbird, Lupo, Rhyme, and Wren were all childer of [Gerard Pelletier](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28786023/chapters/70592013), same as Beau and Izzy (Lark).
> 
> Hummingbird was diablerized by his twin brother Wren on December 31st 2002. This fic happens after Wren fled Tucson, which was after Lettow officially became Prince in early 2003. He's still "alive" by the time Night Road starts.
> 
> Lupo took over the Tucson Sabbat after Pelletier was driven from the city. He embraced several people to build his own pack as everyone else either fled or had already met their Final Deaths. He was destroyed by Beau on April 3rd 2005, when Beau, Dove, and Lettow raided the Sabbat warehouse his pack was hiding in.
> 
> Rhyme was caught by the Camarilla and executed by Lettow on March 30th, eight days after this recording was made. He had perfect recall and could mimic voices, so this is actually him repeating what he overheard verbatim and trying to replicate the others' voices as closely as possible.


End file.
